


Pretty Lies

by sapphireswimming



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Amity Park doesn't deserve Danny Phantom, Angst, Danny Fenton Needs A Hug, Depressed Danny Fenton, Gen, Gen Work, Half Ghost Angst, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-19
Updated: 2011-05-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22042663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: A depressed Danny reflects on what he has realized as he's grown up. It turns out that everything you learned as a kid is just a pretty lie; there are no heroes, not really...
Kudos: 25
Collections: Collabs and Challenges with DannyPhantomSG1





	Pretty Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6987808/3/Phantasmic-Images
> 
> DannyPhantomSG1's (@Danny Phantom SG-1 on fanfiction.net) corresponding oneshot collection was originally posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6972859/1/Informal-Inspirations
> 
> Prompt: Pretty Lies from the Frank Wildhorn musical The Count of Monte Cristo

Life is complicated.

That's what you learn when you grow up— it's not all nice and simple like your parents told you it was.

Those fairy tales you heard when you were five? Forget them; forget you ever heard about happy endings and the hero always coming out on top at the end of the day.

Everything they taught you is wrong; the world isn't fair and it isn't good.

There are no heroes. Not really.

The bedtime stories you remember are simplified half-truths told to keep society functioning. It's meant to make naïve children dream and wish that they were old enough to put on the armor so they could fight the dragons too.

There is no way that all of the problems and realities of life can be told in bedtime stories. They shouldn't be, either. Kids shouldn't have to realize that the world isn't worth living or dying for. What kind of a place would this world be if that happened?

The more you encourage them to dream though, the worse it is when they're finally disillusioned. It's a long fall from the top of the world…

I think that that's the biggest, most life-shattering lesson, that life is complicated. Once you finally grasp that, you're in the world of the mature adults; you can't go back to being a sweet innocent kid again.

That also makes it the hardest lesson to learn. You have to reconcile this harsh new reality with the knights and castles you've believed in all your life. You have to give up all of those pretty lies. It's not just like learning that unicorns don't exist or Santa isn't real. Those are minor issues; there are still horses and the Christmas presents don't stop coming. But you don't base your life on your belief in Santa, you base it on the fact that might equals right and that people are basically good. That fairy tale endings are possible. That you can actually achieve your dreams if you try hard enough.

When you are still a kid, you think that everything will work out alright. Things will be okay. That's what everyone tells you and you never have any reason to doubt them… You trust them because they've taught you everything else about the world. This shouldn't be any different. Not when it is actually the basis for your entire system of beliefs. It's the one thing that's actually important and shapes the course of your life. You should be able to believe them when they tell you how the world works.

They say that no one will ever try to hurt you; no one will stop you from doing what you've always dreamed.

Of course, everyone does what they are supposed to, trying to fulfill their duty faithfully and honourably. Responsibilities don't require sacrifices and people don't ask you to shoulder burdens that you cannot bear. Being the hero will always bring fame, money, and the girl at the end of the day.

You learn that everything fits into neat little categories. Things are black and white. Wrong and right. There is no space in between. There are good guys and bad guys. They don't ever mix or switch sides and they sure as heck don't join forces for any reason whatsoever.

The good guys never become the bad guys. The good guys don't fight other good guys.

That's what they tell us, our parents, our teachers, our books. Everyone says that life will be clear-cut and easy to understand.

.

But none of that is true, is it?

No.

Everything becomes more and more confused as you get older. The lines between morals begin to mesh and blur until they form a hundred shades of grey. Nothing is clear; there's always another way to look at it. There is no black and white anymore.

And all that stuff about the hero always winning? Ha. Tell that to the half-ghost bleeding his life out for you on the streets when his enemies come at him for the sixth time in a single night.

It's not true.

And if you are actually stupid enough to stick by those idiotic ideas about being the good guy and try to do what is right, you'll be rewarded by being hunted down by your own friends and family for the freak that you are. You have to isolate yourself from anyone you care about so that they won't be tortured, killed, or used as bait by crazed up fruitloops, just because they know you.

You can't afford to make mistakes because there is no way to go back in time to fix it.

There are no such things as second chances.

Heroes aren't praised or showered with gratitude for saving the lives of those around them time and time again. If the would-be-victims-but-for-you happen to glance your way, it is only to point an accusatory finger.

They don't care. So I don't even know why I bother.

I don't think that there really are any good guys. Their swords dull, their flashy badges tarnish, and their white hats get trampled in the dirt. People who try to be heroes mess up sometimes. They aren't infallible. Buildings collapse. Innocent people die. And I can't do anything to stop it, no matter how hard I try. Sometimes, I don't even want to try anymore. I just want to stop, give up the heroic antics, and let these ungrateful and enlightened adults deal with it all by themselves.

But that shouldn't ever be the case either, should it? The hero should never doubt themselves or the value of what they do. They have to stand up for what is right, no matter how hard it is.

Yeah, if that's what you think, you should try carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders for a day and see where it gets you.

As you grow up, you begin to realize that the good guy isn't actually that different from the bad guy. They are like opposite sides of the same coin. A single flip of chance can make the hero topple from their hallowed pedestal. Sometimes it barely takes a nudge to make them fall. It really isn't that hard to corrupt the incorruptible.

And who is to say what right and wrong is anyway?

No one sticks by their values anymore. You can't.

In order to survive, you have to sell your soul to the devil, team up with your archenemy to live for another day. And that is when you learn that he isn't as different from you as you originally thought. Or perhaps you aren't as different from him anymore as he had imagined. You're slipping. And he's waiting for you to finally fall over the edge with a smile on his face.

That's what the real world is like. That's how it is. Compromise wherever you turn.

No, nothing is good, clear, or easy to understand in this world. And everything you were ever told to that effect was a big fat lie.

The world isn't beautiful, it's cruel.

The hero doesn't always win. He doesn't always try. He isn't always right.

And the world blames him whenever he isn't.

.

Is this what I grew up for? To live in a world where everyone waits for an opportunity to tear someone else to pieces?

Why did I bother? If I had known about all of this beforehand, I would have done everything I could to make sure I stayed a clueless kid forever.

Why would you shove me into this kind of a place? Give me this responsibility? You've turned me into Atlas before I even had a chance to graduate from high school!

Why would you make me fight for _it_ —whatever _it_ is that's still worth fighting for—for this place, for you?

There's no point anyway.

Not anymore. Not now that I see what the world is really like.

Why did you have to make me grow up? Why did you have to teach me how the world really works? Why couldn't you have just left me alone and let me stay the happy disillusioned kid who still believed in all of those pretty lies?

The one who still thought that it was cool to be the hero.

.


End file.
